The Now: Bryce Young

I grew up in a tiny little town called Angourie, northern New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. I was on the front of my dad's board when I was like four and then I got my first board when I was like five. Definitely some special boards around. They were always under our house. As a grandma I remember always crawling around and there's like 40 boards, 50 boards or whatever. So I'd see one and have to go up and ask dad if he could come and drag it out for me. You don't really think of anything apart from him being your pop. Amazing to have him pushing me and not pushing me so much as just letting me do whatever I felt like I wanted to do at the time. He was never forceful in any way, just always backed me with whatever I wanted to do. When I was a grom I did the juniors a little bit, not too much. But never really felt like it was where I wanted to be. Never really enjoyed competing. I don't think I'd ever want to compete. Just personally for me it's not what I feel like doing. I just had a session at Wingcom last year that just made me realise how crazy it gets here. The waves are so good in California. I've pretty much been doing the Endless Winter program for a little while now. I've been kind of cruising home for winter and then back here for winter. A lot of my best friends also live out here. I'm just really lucky enough to have the friends that I do have. With their skill set and talents I've been able to ride just boards that I could never have even dreamed of. Pretty much when I was a grom I always rode a longboard. But when I was shortboarding it was on a traditional shortboard which was cool and fun. Just the last couple of years I've had my eyes open to everything which has been amazing. Just enjoying everything for every kind of different board for the situation and the feelings that you get from each individual thing. The skateboarding thing is funny because it's actually how my mum and dad met. It was through skating and my dad actually made the movie Fall Line. They needed a skater and they brought my mum on to shoot the skate part. Like some epic downhill on an old classic fiberglass bane board. So that's how my mum and my dad met. She's been the one who got me into skating. She started me when I was around the same time, like four or five. Always loved both. It's amazing to me how interconnected they all are. Surfing, skating and snowboarding, it all originated from surfers. If you can surf like you're skating or snowboard like you're surfing, it's all epic. I want to just keep doing it for as long as I can. Take bits of each of what you really love and then try to apply them in different areas. I think it's something really cool.